If you follow MMOs, you may have heard of the disaster that was the launch of Final Fantasy XIV (which I’ll just call FF14 from now on for simplicity’s sake). Highly anticipated, many hoped that FF14 would follow in the footsteps of extremely popular MMO Final Fantasy XI. Instead, FF14 was extremely different, and not in a good way. Many FF11 players went back to 11, and many MMO players who hadn’t played FF11 decided that FF14 wasn’t worth their time. The launch was such a mess that though a subscription for the game had been planned, the people in charge decided that they couldn’t ask a monthly fee from their players with the game in its current form. Though the game launched September 2010, players weren’t billed for a subscription until January 2012.

Shortly after the game’s launch, however, FF14 received a new director and producer who hoped to salvage the game. Through player feedback, aggressive changes were made to the game in a series of patches. Graphics were updated, gameplay systems were removed, added, or severely changed, and content was boosted. Back in November, though, FF14 was taken offline to prepare for the relaunch of FF14: A Realm Reborn. This second version of FF14 will be vastly different than FF14, boasting a new server system, a new graphics engine, a revamped and completely different UI, rehauled as well as new job classes, PVP content, and the new Full Active Time Event (FATE) system.

FF14: A Realm Reborn is currently in alpha, but beta sign-ups are available for both the PC and PS3 (yes, it’s finally going to come to PS3!) versions. While the relaunch isn’t planned until mid 2013, the past few months have brought a lot of alpha sneak peeks, and the game looks vastly different than the stuff I’ve seen from the old version. As someone who never gave the original a second thought, I’m intrigued by what I see for FF14: A Realm Reborn.